Excel is a program that many people are wary of — it’s a complex piece of software, with a lot of functionality hiding away beneath the surface. It’s easy to see why novices would be put off by something so complicated, but this powerful piece of software is well worth the effort.

Make your way through these techniques, and it won’t be long before you’re comfortable with the fundamentals of Excel. From there, you’re well on your way to becoming a true spreadsheet master.

The Basics

Here are some of the first techniques you’ll need to master if you want to get to grips with Excel. They’re largely very simple, but it’s important that you’re familiar with them before you start attempting more complex tasks.

To begin, start with the most basic math problems you will ever need to feed into Excel. The first thing to remember about techniques like this is that Excel expects to see an equals sign first when you’re giving it a problem to work out. Type in =10+10 into a cell in your spreadsheet and press enter; the cell should display the number 20.

This will automatically populate the selected cell with a SUM formula, so press enter to execute it. Excel will add the two numbers together and deliver the result in the specified cell — by using the AutoSum dropdown, you can choose different mathematical functions, too.

Applying Number Formats

Once your spreadsheets start getting a little bit more complex, they’re liable to contain different types of numbers; currency, dates, percentages, and more. To make sure you can work with this data, it’s well worth formatting it to type.

Select the numbers you want to format — you’ll have to do each different type one at a time. Look for the Number section at the top of the screen, and find the dropdown that defaults to General.

From there you can choose from a healthy list of different number formats. If you’re looking for more control, select More number formats from the bottom of the list, and you’ll be able to specify details like the amount of decimal places to use, or your preferred currency.

Hover over one of the options to get a preview of how it will look, or select More for extra control over the finished product.

Advanced Techniques

Sooner or later, you will probably want to take your Excel usage to the next level. The good news is that many aspects of the software’s functionality are connected in some way or another, meaning that learning one technique will likely reap benefits elsewhere later on.

Using Functions Manually

Once you’ve mastered basic arithmetic in Excel, it’s wise to start experimenting with Functions. You’ll discover a huge variety of different Functions to carry out different procedures, and all are slightly different — however, working with simpler examples will help you become familiar with basic practices that carry over.

As you can see above, I have five numbers that I’d like to add together, so I’ve entered my Function in the cell directly below the list — note that you can execute this task anywhere on your spreadsheet, as you’ll tell the program exactly which cells it’s looking for. You can produce a working example by typing in =SUM(E1:E5), but there are other ways to relay this command, too.

You might want to enter in the word SUM and open the brackets, then select the cells manually. You can do this by holding down Control key and clicking individual cells — dragging over multiple cells works also. Alternatively, you can type in individual cell references separated by a single comma if they’re not sequential.

The benefit of using cell references in Functions rather than integers is that your results will update based on the contents of those cells. Once your spreadsheet projects begin to get more complex, this will certainly come in useful.

For these purposes, we’ll use conditional formatting to help provide a visual shorthand for some data, so pick something that’s worth being able to assess at-a-glance if you’re going to try this one out. Select that data, and navigate to Home > Conditional Formatting.

You’ll fine a great wealth of different formatting options. We’re looking at percentages, so a data bar makes sense — however, color scales and icon sets can also be used very effectively in appropriate circumstances.

Remember that you can control aspects of the process by clicking on More Rules in the dropdown menu. If your formatting isn’t providing enough differentiation to be immediately clear, consider tweaking the rules a bit.

Adding a Trendline to a Chart

Anyone can create a chart with Excel — the secret to becoming an expert is being aware of all the many tools the software offers to make a chart that fits your brief perfectly. A trendline is one of the many components that you might need to bring together to achieve that task.

This is an addition that you’ll make to a chart once it’s been built, so create one as a test or use something that’s already been prepared. Once it’s in place, you need to click on the chart, then click the Chart Elements shortcut that’s illustrated by a plus sign icon. You can add a trendline quickly by checking the box next to it, or you can click on the arrow to the right to access more detailed options.

The crucial element here is to know what you’re trying to illustrate. A trendline isn’t a good addition in many situations, so it’s vital that you think about the data that you’re trying to present, and consider whether you’re adding something worthwhile to your chart, or just introducing more clutter that distracts from the point being made.

Build Your Excel Skills

There’s always more to learn about Excel, but here are a few good places to start. Microsoft’s Office Support site is home to a bevy of clearly presented tutorials on everything from high-level usage to the simplest tasks you might want to carry out.

Alternatively, Excel Functions provides a great reference point, whether you’re an absolute beginner or a seasoned veteran. Of course, Excel will help you out with tooltips as you try input a Function, but it’s good to have such a comprehensive resource to hand, if you do end up in a bind.

I am now retired, but have used Excel (and others before there was an Excel) for many, many years. In recent years I have discovered ASAP Utilities, which is an excellent add-on for Excel!
I still use it for any and all types of charts - i.e. Phone Numbers, scoring chart for card games,
deck layouts on cruise ships, etc.